Posted on 11/09/2003 6:09:56 AM PST by BigWaveBetty
THOUGHTS OF FINDING A PENNY
You always hear the usual stories of pennies on the sidewalk being
good luck, gifts from angels, etc. This is the first time I've ever
heard this twist on the story. Gives you something to think about.
Several years ago, a friend of mine and her husband were invited to
spend the weekend at the husband's employer's home. My friend,
Arlene, was nervous about the weekend. The boss was very wealthy,
with a fine home on the waterway, and cars costing more than her
house.
The first day and evening went well, and Arlene was delighted to have
this rare glimpse into how the very wealthy live. The husband's
employer was quite generous as a host, and took them to the finest
restaurants. Arlene knew she would never have the opportunity to
indulge in this kind of extravagance again, so was enjoying herself
immensely.
As the three of them were about to enter an exclusive restaurant that
evening, the boss was walking slightly ahead of Arlene and her
husband. He stopped suddenly, looking down on the pavement for a
long, silent moment.
Arlene wondered if she was supposed to pass him. There was nothing on
the ground except a single darkened penny that someone had dropped,
and a few cigarette butts. Still silent, the man reached down and
picked up the penny.
He held it up and smiled, then put it in his pocket as if he had
found a great treasure. How absurd! What need did this man have for a
single penny?
Why would he even take the time to stop and pick it up?
Throughout dinner, the entire scene nagged at her. Finally, she could
stand it no longer. She causally mentioned that her daughter once had
a coin collection, and asked if the penny he had found had been of
some value.
A smile crept across the man's face as he reached into his pocket for
the penny and held it out for her to see. She had seen many pennies
before!
What was the point of this?
"Look at it." He said. "Read what it says." She read the words
"United States of America."
"No, not that; read further."
"One cent?" "No, keep reading."
"In God we Trust?" "Yes!" "And?"
"And if I trust in God, the name of God is holy, even on a coin.
Whenever I find a coin I see that inscription. It is written on every
single United States coin, but we never seem to notice it! God drops
a message right in front of me telling me to trust Him?
Who am I to
pass it by? When I see a coin, I pray, I stop to see if my trust IS
in God at that moment. I pick the coin up as a response to God; that
I do trust in Him. For a short time, at least, I cherish it as if it
were gold. I think it is God's way of starting a conversation with
me. Lucky for me, God is patient and pennies are plentiful!
When I was out shopping today, I found a penny on the sidewalk.
I
stopped and picked it up, and realized that I had been worrying and
fretting in my mind about things I cannot change. I read the words,
"In God We Trust," and had to laugh. Yes, God, I get the message.
It seems that I have been finding an inordinate number of pennies in
the last few months, but then, pennies are plentiful!
And, God is patient....
Have a blessed day!!
Much speculation has swirled around how algore would have handled government after 9/11. Here's a clue...
Gore said a steady series of civil liberties violations have created a false impression that America is safer. [BAH!] In fact, he contended, the administration is skimping on security at nuclear-storage facilities, [define skimping] failing to screen airliner cargo [I wouldn't go there if I were you al.] and still has no serious plan to protect domestic infrastructure, like electric power lines. [Sure, no problem to protect the millions of power lines and infrastructure.]
The next four paragraphs speak for themselves as proof we'd be sitting ducks if algore were in charge:
Gore was particularly critical of the administration's detention of American citizens as enemy combatants, its treatment of prisoners in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba and the rounding up of hundreds of illegal immigrants after the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
Gore called the detention of immigrants - most of them Arab men who had overstayed their visas - "a cheap and cruel political stunt by (Attorney General) John Ashcroft."
"They have taken us much further down the road toward an intrusive `big brother' style of government … than anyone ever thought would be possible in the United States," Gore said.
Gore drew his most sustained applause when he attacked the Patriot Act, the anti-terrorism law that expanded police investigative and surveillance powers. Gore said while the Patriot Act made some needed changes, it has "turned out to be, on balance, a terrible mistake." More idiot blatherings
I've been seeing the ads for those strapless bras and was interested. I wonder though, what if you're out in this FL heat and well, you know, you start "glistening", do they fall off? That could be a problem.
But Rep. Kolbe of AZ wants to get rid of the penny....
Get rid of the penny?! My Friday nites of penny rolling will never be the same. ;-)
November 10, 2003 -- WASHINGTON - Gen. Tommy Franks, who retired after leading the first stage of this year's war against Iraq, says in a new report that Wesley Clark, another former general, would make a lousy president.
"Absolutely not," said Franks, when asked if Clark, who recently joined the pack of presidential wannabes, would make a good commander-in-chief. [snip]
The antipathy toward Clark from military brass isn't new. As recently as October, Franks opted out of a chance to praise Clark, joking instead in an NBC interview: "Ain't this a great country."
The New Yorker report suggests that Clark's problems with some of his peers evolved during his time as supreme allied commander in Europe - when he feuded openly and often with his superiors about whether to get involved in the Kosovo conflict.
The report notes that some of the complaints about Clark stem from jealously and that many fellow officers were threatened by his intellect. NYPost
Imagining evaluations on many o' little Clark's grade school report cards: Wesley doesn't play well with others.
You've hit the nail on the head, Sweetie. There's a reason his peers won't support his campaign, and I seriously doubt it is jealousy (as suggested in this article).
A few years ago a priest who had taught at Patrick Buchanan's high school spoke to a local gathering - Kiwanis or Rotary, some such thing - and he said young Pat was a whiner and a mama's boy. PB and Weasley seem to have at least one character trait in common.
COMEDY Central's "Kid Notorious," that animation series based on Robert Evans' Hollywoodiana, is getting shampooed. Less dirty digs at world leaders and D.C. names. More mainstream . . .
Let's hope Liz is wrong as usual.
Cheers, all
Eminem misses Tupac Shakur. "The day he died, the world kinda stopped," he recently told a friend. source
Amen, bro'. No, really.
In other news of the terminally clueless:
If there's a Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, then why not a Sen. Al Franken? The New York-born comedian and writer says he is "intrigued" at the idea of joining the ranks of Hillary Clinton and Trent Lott - as a senator from his adopted home state of Minnesota. Friends in the state want Franken to reclaim the seat held by the late Democratic Sen. Paul Wellstone - a seat now occupied by Republican Norm Coleman. "Republicans always say, 'How dare Susan Sarandon and Martin Sheen get involved in politics!'" Franken tells this week's Newsweek. "Then Arnold showed up and it was, 'Oooh! Arnold's running! Oooh! The Terminator!'" "I used to say I'd never run because I'd be a terrible officeholder," Franken said. "Now I don't want to say that, because it would look bad if I ever did run." NYDailyNews
Was that the one with Jack Chirac?
Seyid Hasan Naji al-Musawi, the 38-year-old imam of Sadr City's Muhsin mosque and commander of Sadr's Army of the Mahdi in Baghdad, said that the final days were approaching in which the Mahdi would return. Shi'ites believe that the 12th imam, Mohammed al-Mahdi, a descendant of Mohammed, went into an invisible supernatural location when he was a child, and he has ruled the world from there, but that he will one day return to the corporeal world and restore justice, accompanied by Jesus Christ.
Musawi declared that America's real purpose in coming to Iraq was to kill the Mahdi. "Iraq will be the end of America," he said, "the Mahdi will be coming soon and when he comes he will kill the Jewish leadership," which he equated with the Americans, adding that Julius Caesar was Jewish, and the Jews were the Romans.
Musawi quoted a verse from the Koran prognosticating the eventual defeat of the Jews. He added that the Mahdi would be coming from the Hejaz area of Saudi Arabia, accompanied by Jesus, and he would also kill many clerics who wear the imama, or Shi'ite turban. LGF
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